Big April fall: that's sow biz to man on the land

Darren Gray

MELBURNIANS may have splashed through puddles, driven through pouring rain and cursed at the heavens as the city received a drenching over the past two days, but for farmers like Max Blackmore it has been a blessing.

In fact, after a dry two months on the family's Baringhup farm, near Maldon, it could not have come at a better time.

Max Blackmore is all smiles on the family farm at Baringhup, near Maldon. 'We were really sweating on getting rain,' he says. Photo: John Woudstra

For the Blackmores, and for other growers across the state's grain belt, more rain clouds are needed.

Anzac Day has long been considered a signal to the state's grain growers to start sowing crops, and this week's rain means Mr Blackmore can start, knowing the moisture should ensure the seeds will germinate safely.

''Anzac Day is just that stake in the ground - you like to be doing something by Anzac Day,'' he said. ''Last year we were well into May before we got the rain to start sowing, so we're a little bit earlier this year, which is good.''

The earlier start means his canola seeds will go into warmer soil and, hopefully, the yields from the crop at harvest in spring will be greater.

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''We're going to be starting at an ideal time,'' Mr Blackmore said. ''We were really sweating on getting rain so we could start sowing. We got a little tiny bit Saturday night, the bulk of it came Sunday and we got a little bit on Monday as well. Basically, it means the paddocks have got enough moisture on top that we can get in there and start the cropping program.

''So we'll start with pre-drilling fertiliser for the canola, then we'll go straight on and sow that.''

The Blackmores also run sheep and cattle on their property, and the rain - about 15 millimetres over three days - will give a much-needed boost to pastures.

''It will help kick the pasture growth along. We had some absolutely magnificent autumn feed after that big rain in March, but all that was really getting close to fizzling out, until this little bit of rain to give it a kick.'' The president of the grains group of the Victorian Farmers Federation, Andrew Weidemann, said grain growers were hoping for more rain, but some were already sowing.

''We're definitely looking for rain,'' he said. ''We need enough rain to wet up that top 100 millimetres somewhere in the next week to 10 days.''

Mr Weidemann said he expected growers to increase the amount of land sown to canola - at the expense of wheat and barley - because of prices.

''For a lot of grain growers last year, certainly through the northern part of the state, they were lucky to break even,'' he said. ''And some were questioning whether they should actually sow a crop or not this year.'' While grain growers are looking for more rain, Melburnians - particularly in the eastern suburbs - have probably seen enough of it lately.

Between 9am on Monday and 3pm yesterday, the city received 24.4 millimetres of rain. But the city total was dwarfed by Scoresby, where 77.6 millimetres was recorded.

At Coldstream, east of Melbourne, 61 millimetres was recorded.

Good rain has been recorded in the catchments around Melbourne also, with high totals at the Maroondah dam (50 millimetres in 24 hours), Upper Yarra dam (21.2) and the Thomson (30.2). Melbourne's dams were 64.4 per cent full yesterday.